Brit Rockers Catfish and the Bottlemen Want To Be the Next Beatles

After meeting the lads, we think it's totally possible.

Welsh band Catfish & the Bottlemen look every bit the part of an iconic British rock ’n’ roll band. Dressed all in black with long, shaggy hair and subtle brooding expressions, they perfectly fit the mold, but without any of the pretension that often accompanies similar artists. “When people know us and when we’re performing on stage and we catch each other’s eye, sometimes we just break into hysterics,” says Van McCann, the lead singer of the band. “We’re still just boys in it all.” A true statement for the foursome of young twenty-somethings, who’ve been catapulted into the spotlight over the last year.

Van and bassist Benji Blakeway started the band when they were teens, and were later joined by guitarist Johnny Bond and drummer Bob Hall. After spending their formative years playing free shows in pubs and parking lots, and handing out CDs at music festivals, they caught the attention industry in 2014 with their debut album, The Balcony. A collection of songs about first loves, fights with friends, and wanting to escape the town where you grew up, it’s immediately relatable and undeniably catchy — an album that reminds of you sitting in your bedroom with your best friends, navigating the experiences of young adult life. At their sold out shows across the U.K. and U.S., screaming fans sing every lyric, which is the best part for the band. “That’s why I make music, to play live and see the way people react to the songs,” Van says.

Despite their recent success, steadily climbing rock star status, and bold amibitions, the lads are as humble as ever — genuinely excited and appreciative of everything coming their way. Ahead of their most recent New York show, we caught up with the band to talk musical icons, awesome covers, and their second album. Read our interview below, and if you're headed to Lollapalooza this weekend, be sure to catch them on Saturday!

You guys have been touring nonstop since you released the album last year — have there been any shows that have really stuck out?It wasn’t the maddest gig we ever played, but we just did a show in Milwaukee off the top of our heads. When we tour in America, we can’t bring all of our equipment or our crew, so something always seems to go wrong — a speaker blows up or we’re handed the wrong guitar. But in Milwaukee we had our new crew and it was just a really solid gig — we felt like little kids again on stage. Then after, we all sat in an empty swimming pool and hung out and just everyone came together in that moment, it was cool.

Is it different playing shows in America than in the UK?Yeah it’s definitely different in the U.S. — not good or bad, just different. Here [in the U.S.], it’s sort of catching up, the crowds are like a year behind the UK in people knowing us, but it’s definitely catching up. And here, when we come out and we talk and we have the accent and everything and we have the suits and we look like a rock band, people definitely get excited. But we just see everyone and just think ‘How are they all here, why do they all know us?’ But we are proud of that, we want to be a rock band the way our favorite bands were — The Doors and The Beatles, all these bands, The Strokes. It’s just really exciting.

What bands and artists did you listen to growing up, or have had an influence on you?Van: I love Mike Skinner from The Streets. Every day, every song I write, I write the way I do because of him. It’s like you’re just talking to your best mate. I just try and do what he did in Grime music and make it for our sound, for rock ’n’ roll.Johnny: My memories of growing up were my mum always playing Motown and Elton John music, my dad playing The Damned and the Clash, and punk music. So I had an interest sort of in the middle of that. Taking this old Motown song, but the idea of playing them in punk bands and rock.Benji: Yeah, the first music I listened to was from my dad. He got me into Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Neil Young, all that kind of stuff. And then later I got into The Strokes and Kings of Leon and those bands.Bob: I was really just a drummer before being in the band, it wasn’t into as much of rock music before, so they taught me about a lot of the music when I joined.Van: And The National – have you ever interviewed The National? Thank you America for The National, be sure you print that. I love them!

And I know you’re working on your second album — what can we expect?We literally just came out of recording so it’s really exciting to talk about. I [Van] wrote the second album in a week, just holed up in a house and just wrote about all of the things that have been going on, everything that’s changed because of the band and all of the ups and downs. But it’s all positive — life affirming. And we wrote it all with this one producer in mind, and then we actually got to work with him. Our dream producer. I brought the songs to the boys and they just made it sound massive and amazing, and when he flew in from L.A. we had 15 songs ready to play for him and he was just blown away by it.

That’s amazing that you got to work with him. You guys definitely have a devoted following — have you had any crazy fan experiences?Yeah we were blown away by him being blown away. Said he’d never worked with a band that has so much drive, and the work ethic, and not ability, but like, togetherness. And that’s like when people say oh you’re an artist or they’ve got talent, that’s not what we feel like. It’s so crazy like a fan will hear an interview that you like banana yogurts and they’ll bring one to the venue — we can get involved with that [laughs].

And you guys have done some really awesome covers, if you could have anyone cover your songs, who would you want to?Benji: I don’t know if it would work, but I really like The Walkmen, his voice is just so amazing.Johnny: I’d love to hear what Kevin Parker [of Tame Impala] would do with our songs.Van: Obviously for me The Streets — we actually do a mashup of our track “Kathleen” and “Blinded by the Light,” and it would be really cool to have him do something with us. Maybe if we do Glasto one day.